Rachael Carlevale’s life has taken some twists, including a health crisis, that helped her develop the Ganjasana yoga system, which she says centers on using cannabis plant medicine mindfully.

Cannabis and yoga are very trendy at the moment and it’s not hard to find a yoga class in marijuana-legal states that in some way incorporates cannabis use.

But the tradition of cannabis and yoga actually goes back centuries, according to Rachael Carlevale, founder of the Colorado-based Ganjasana yoga system.

“If we look at the roots of yoga practice you can see that ganja was a part of that,” she says during a telephone interview with The Cannabist. “In India you see the Sadhus (Hindu holy men) sitting in meditation; they are smoking ganja.